Education experts provide tools to improve NSW student skills

Education experts will start working at hundreds of schools across NSW as part of the state government's latest initiative to improve students' literacy and numeracy.

SYDNEY, Sept 21 - The $340 million investment is one of the five key planks of the Baird government's four-year strategy, which includes more support for secondary schools.

Students entering high school will be required to sit an exam to help teachers identify areas where they might be struggling.

"It's important at the beginning of Year 7 for the high schools to know where children are up to in their learning so that they can use that data to target where they start teaching that child from week one of highschool," Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said on Wednesday.

The so-called literacy and numeracy progressions are being trialled in 673 public and private schools for kindergarten to year 2 studentswho are at risk of not meeting minimum standards.

Teachers will be able to collate data from the exams as well as use online diagnostic assessment tools to better collate data, Piccoli said.

"It is a resource to make sure that when your child comes from year 2 and eventually gets to year 7 the high school can check where they're at," he said.

The exam results will not be made public but parents will be able to access them.

The data will also be used to develop new maths and English syllabuses.

Non-government schools looking to buy into the new teacher training program can do so using the federal government's Gonski funding, Piccoli said.

"That's what we're encouraging schools to do, see what works, see what's effective and then use that flexible funding that you've got to implement it or enhance it where you can," he said.

The government will commission an independent evaluation into the Literacy and Numeracy Strategy 2017-2020 in the next four years.